Onyx Dunhill ‘Half-Giant’ lighter, 1950s

Alfred Dunhill: a highly unusual variation on a ‘Half-Giant’ table lighter, the silver-plated lighter wrapped in beautifully tactile, translucent green onyx, with tapered sides and facetted detail. English, circa 1950.

Length: 4 inches (10 cm).

Onyx was a favoured complimentary material to bronzes and sculptures created in the 1920s and 1930s. Famously, Mies van de Rohe incorporated giant slabs of onyx into his design of the iconic Villa Tugendhat at Brno in 1930, to create a shimmering, semi-translucent interior wall.

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